Awards: Midwifery Faculty & Students are Recognized

Aleida Llanes-Oberstein, CNM, LM, MS, FACNM, CHSE, was the recipient the 2019 American College of Nurse-Midwives Excellence in Teaching Award for demonstration of outstanding teaching qualities, for promotion of high standards
of midwifery education and for inspiring students to excel.

Aleida Llanes-Oberstein, CNM, LM, MS, FACNM, CHSE was the recipient of the School of Health Professions Outstanding College Contributor Award for significant contributions to advance the mission and goals of the School of Health
Professions.

Presented by Dean Allen Lewis PhD, CRC

The ACNM Fellowship in Recognition of Lifetime Achievement

This honor is bestowed upon those midwives whose professional achievement, outstanding
scholarship, clinical excellence, and/or demonstrated leadership have merited them
special recognition both within and outside of the midwifery profession. In light
of the vast wealth of expertise and collective wisdom represented within the body
of Fellows, its mission is to serve the ACNM in a consultative and advisory capacity.

Ronnie Lichtman, CNM, LM, PhD, FACNM received her Midwifery education at Columbia
University, where she later taught for many years. Prior to teaching, she was one
of the first midwives at North Central Bronx Hospital and has always practiced clinically.
She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Midwifery Program here, at SUNY
Downstate. Previously, Dr. Lichman was midwifery Program Director at Columbia University
and SUNY Stony Brook. She co-edited and was a major contributor of Gynecology: Well
Woman Care and the first author of a major revision of the classic guide for women:
Dr. Guttmamacher's Pregnacy, Birth and Family Planning.

Aleida Llanes-Oberstein, CNM, LM, MS, FACNM received her midwifery and master's degree
from Columbia University. During the 1980s and 1990s she started two private midwifery
practices and developed expertise in the areas of insurance and billing issues. Aleida
has been a midwifery educator since 1990 at the State University of New York Downstate
Medical Center in Brooklyn and is a recipient of the ACNM Excellence in Teaching Award.
She developed and implemented the first international program on the medical center
campus, and exchange program with Cuba, received a SUNY Downstate Medical Center Presidential
Award for this project, and has published on perinatal health care issues of Cuban
immigrant women. She is a recipient on the New York University Midwifery Alliance
Koko Roy Award.

Aleida Llanes-Oberstein is an ACNM Division of Accreditation Site Visitor, member
of the Division of Education Continuing Education Panel, and a peer reviewer for the
Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health. Aleida is well-known throughout the region
for her influential work in effecting important state legislative and regulatory change
as ACNM local chapter Chair of the Legislative and Managed Care Committees and for
coordinating state-of-the-art continuing education programs. Aleida Llanes-Oberstein
was appointed to the New York State Board of Midwifery in 1998, is currently serving
her fifth term and was the Board Chair.

Suzanne Schechter, CNM, LM, MS, FACNM received a BA in English from Clark University,
a MS in Nursing from Pace University and a midwifery certificate from State University
of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center where she has been a member of the faculty
since 1985 and the program’s Education Director since 1995. Professor Schechter contributed
to the transformation of the nurse-midwifery certificate program into a graduate level
program that, for over a decade, has been offered not solely to students whose background
is in nursing, but also to those whose education and experience is in disciplines
other than nursing. She is currently the co-investigator of an on-going educational
research project comparing direct entry and RN graduates of the SUNY Downstate Midwifery
Program from 1997 through 2006.

Professor Schechter served as a member of the Board of Review and is a site visitor
for the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (formerly the Division of
Accreditation). She has also been a member of the Division of Education, Continuing
Education Section’s reader panel since 2001. As an active member of ACNM Region 2,
Chapter 1 for over twenty years, she has served in a variety of capacities including
two terms as Treasurer, Chair of the Nominating Committee and has mostly recently
joined the Editorial Staff of the chapter newsletter. In 2006 she spearheaded the
formation of a Student Scholarship Committee which she has Chaired since its inception.

While the principal focus of her midwifery career has been in the area of education,
Suzanne Schechter has provided direct health care services to mothers, babies, and
families for over thirty years. In 2004, she was a recipient of the ACNM Regional
Award for Excellence and in 2008 the ACNM Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award.
Suzanne is grateful to her midwifery mentors, colleagues and students who have inspired
and helped guide her professional endeavors.

After growing up in the housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and being raised
by her grandmother who struggled to do it alone, Shakima has proudly returned to the
communities of her youth as a public health nurse. She dropped out of high school,
experienced homelessness, and numerous other crises, but overcame all of it as part
of her journey to pursue the dream of becoming a nurse.

Shakima is currently enrolled in the joint program of the School of Health Professions
and the College of Nursing pursuing the Advance Certificate in Midwifery and the Masters
of Science in Nurse-Midwifery. She completed her undergraduate studies at CUNY’s New
York City College of Technology and now works for the Nurse Family Partnership, a
national program aimed at helping mothers, children, and families achieve optimal
birth, child-development and self-sufficiency outcomes. Her current work focuses on
lactation consulting and childbirth educations. She advocates for women survivors
of domestic violence and assault, and is developing a program using social media as
a teaching and social support platform to address some of the many issues she champions.

Shakima recently learned that she was selected as one of this year's recipients of
the March of Dimes graduate nursing scholarship that is awarded for exceptional work
in maternal-child health. She embodies the essence of Downstate's mission and values.
We are so very proud of her.

American College of Nurse-Midwives Foundation Scholarship: Chloe Campbell, Class of
2019

Chloe Campbell, SM, received an American College of Nurse-Midwives Foundation scholarship.
This is a highly competitive award that recognizes her past contributions and future
potential in serving women’s health.

New York State Association of Licensed Midwives' (NYSALM) Award: Rachel Ritter Class
of 2016

Midwifery Student, Rachel Ritter, received the Future of Midwifery is in Good Hands
Award at the 2015 NYSALM Lobby Day.

Maria Freytsis already had an impressive resume before entering the Midwifery Program.
In addition to providing training and health services to women in China, Antigua,
Guatemala, and Kosovo, she is co-founder and board president of Friends of the Birth
Center, a grassroots organization formed after the only birthing center in Manhattan
closed in 2003. While enrolled at Downstate, she continued to volunteer as a public
health worker, helping villagers in Indonesia affected by the tsunami. An excellent
student, she pioneered a new clinical site for the Midwifery Program at the Developing
Families Birth Center in Washington, DC, to provide quality care for underserved patients.

Each year, schools within the State University system are encouraged to submit nominations
for the Chancellor’s Award. SUNY Downstate was permitted two, based on its student
enrollment. Students graduating between June 2007 and May 2008 were considered for
the award.